1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for malting grain, comprising a tower with several tiers, which are separated from each other by tier floors. Each tier comprises an air-permeable carrying floor to support the grain to be germinated, along with air conditioning agents for conditioning the air and displacement elements. A supply canal and discharge canal for displacing conditioned air are provided. The conditioned air displaced via the supply canal are provided to guide from the air conditioning elements to the bottom side of a carrying floor, through the carrying floor and a grain layer lying on the carrying floor to the upper side of the grain layer, and the conditioned air displaced via the discharge canal is guided away from the upper side of the grain layer.
2. Discussion of Background Information
A generic device has been operational since 1972 at the facility of the Bavaria N.V. company in Lieshout, Netherlands. This device has a tower with annular carrying floors rotatable around an axis, which are located between two overlying tier floors. The carrying floors are supported on both the inner diameter and outer diameter. The inner diameter of the annular carrying floor measures 6 meters, while the outer diameter of the carrying floor (and tier floors) measures 20 meters. Conditioned air is supplied by way of a lockable opening in the side wall of the tower, wherein conditioned air can also exit the tower again via an opening in the side wall of the tower after a grain layer has passed on a carrying floor. Even though the tower according to prior art is technologically excellent, there is a demand for further increasing the capacity of such devices. At first glance, one logical solution would be to increase the outer diameter of the tier floor, so that a larger quantity of grain can be treated per carrying floor. From a practical standpoint, however, structural limitations make it impossible to implement this solution, wherein it increasing the outer diameter of the carrying floor obviously causes the weight of the grain layer to increase by a power of two, with the overstress length rising as well. This task combined with the fact that it is often undesired to design the carrying floors as rotatable around their perpendicular cardoid line is why a device can technically not be constructed in this way, at least not in an economically feasible way. In addition, it is generally also required from at least a structural standpoint to make the bearing structure for the carrying floors as light as possible.